Please enjoy this brief opportunity to see our film 25 – 31st Oct (NZ Time) facebook.com/oneedostudio/ Director: Ned Wenlock Producer: Georgiana Plaister Written by: Ned Wenlock and Chris Brandon Animation: Txesco Montalt, Catherine McIntyre, Ned Wenlock Music: Ben Sinclair and Johann Sebastian Bach Sound Design: Tim Prebble An Oneedo Studio Production In association with The New Zealand Film Commission 2016
In the third act of Blade Runner 2049 we arrive at a stark orange-y Las Vegas, now a wasteland where the replicant and Blade Runner K (Ryan Gosling) has sought out the old-school Blade Runner Deckard (Harrison Ford).
Much of the visual effects work in that sequence was handled by Framestore (overseen by visual effects supervisor Richard Hoover), who worked with overall supervisor John Nelson on creating the distinctive Vegas buildings and incorporating the orange-y feel that had been inspired by Sydney dust storms.
Nelson tells vfxblog more about how that sequence was brought to life, including early discussions about whether the Vegas strip could have been made with miniatures, and some of the challenges of working with that colour scheme.
John Nelson: At one point we looked at doing some of Vegas in miniature, but the problem was that early on I knew that to do good miniature work, I have to be there on the shoot and I couldn’t. Because I was shooting principal. Once I came to that conclusion, ’cause shooting the miniature is just like shooting principal only on a smaller scale. It’s like, you have a set, you have rig the set, light it, shoot it, strike it, get a new set built, shoot it, strike it.
Once I realised that, I said, ‘Really, with the nature of the work and how detailed it needs to be…’ I actually had some stuff that was set to be miniatures and I just said, ‘I’m just moving it to CG because it’ll give us more freedom in post, to be able to say that’s not right, we need to add this.’ Whereas, I think for miniatures, you have to pretty much get what you want.
Unless I was there, and they did a good job for me not being there (for Weta Workshop’s LA scenes). But ultimately some of the Vegas stuff, like going up to the woman and going over the woman – the big statue – that was going to be real and then it was going to go into miniature in the background, and then I just finally said, ‘No, we’ll never get it right.’ What I did was I pulled that back, and we said okay, we’re going to repurpose that stuff in CG because I know I’ll have time to do it.
It all starts, it actually begins with him walking in, which is a really hard shot. Where he goes, ‘What is that? It’s life,’ and she goes, ‘What is that?’ And he goes, ‘We’re about to find out.’ That was a really difficult shot because they’re outside of the orange cloud but they’re looking at the orange cloud. The orange cloud is actually based on sandstorms in Sydney.
The DOP Roger Deakins showed me the sandstorms in Sydney and said, ‘I want it to look like this.’ And the director Denis Villeneuve said, ‘Yeah that’s cool.’ I said, ‘Okay that’s cool,’ but every time I tried to put that cloud on top of, like you’re looking at it from a distance. It would look really artificial, it would look really like, that looks like an effect.
What we actually did to get around it is we toned it down and didn’t make it as orange from a distance and then editorially, Joe Walker really helped us with that. Instead of having the distance shots here cutting to the orange part, he put in between a cutback to Luv and Joshi. So it was like, let’s go in, cut back to Luv and then we’ll cut back to inside the cloud and that really helped because you couldn’t get that orange here. It would look fake. So the only way to do it was to tone it down in the distance and then come back into the orange cloud.
Minte Studio, known for creating original content for the comic book industry, has adopted the Toon Boom pipeline for its expansion into animation.
Their new production pipeline consists of Harmony – the industry’s animation software used in 80 per cent of 2D animation productions worldwide, Storyboard Pro – software that combines drawing and animatic tools with camera controls, and producer – for production tracking, review, and asset management.
Minte Studio’s work on the comics ‘FRIGIEL ET FLUFFY’
Minte founder and CEO Brice Poisson says, “With Toon Boom, we will be able to build on our reputation as a major studio that provides complete transparency into its pipeline and processes – as well as provide the highest quality possible.”
Founded in 2014, Minte established itself with an international clientele, experienced in producing original content for Bande Dessinée as well as concept art, colouring and storyboards. Minte’s founders are the team behind its new animation department. Creative art director Josselin Azorin-Lara has 20 years experience in comics and entertainment while Poisson has over 10 years experience as a successful entrepreneur.
When asked about Toon Boom Harmony, Poisson adds, “Harmony will have the greatest impact as we extend our business to doing co-productions with international studios. Combining Harmony with Storyboard Pro and Producer gives us an integrated end-to-end pipeline that will streamline production, ensure deadlines are met and deliver consistency from start to finish.”
Minte Studio founders Josselin Azorin-Lara and Brice Poisson
Toon Boom experts are working closely with the studio to facilitate adoption of best practices and promote its growth in the industry.
Toon Boom Animation co-president Francois Lalonde says, “They (Minte Studio) are committed to working with our experts to meet the highest international standards for animated content. We will be on hand to get Minte up and running and ready for the new business that is coming their way.”
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The Government of Karnataka in partnership with ABAI, the trade association for the animation, visual effects, gaming and comics sector has announced a unique summit, ‘Bengaluru B2B AVGC Summit’ on 16 and 17 November, 2017 in Bengaluru.
This event is being held concurrently with the Bengaluru Technology Summit 2017.The B2B animation summit is a unique platform designed to connect IP owners and developers; content creators and production houses interested in producing and co-producing creative content. The summit will bring selected international and national studios, producers, broadcasters, distributors and financiers to participate in this ‘buyer: seller’ interface.“The B2B summit is a ‘mini market place’ initiative aimed at promoting local IP creation and providing a platform that would match locally developed concepts with the needs of global and local buyers,” said ABAI President Biren Ghose on the initiative.
Karnataka’s new AVGC policy 2.0, launched in August 2017, provides grants to start-ups, IP creators and local studios. This gives local studios the possibility to participate in cross border initiatives with greater confidence and resources. The timeframe is extremely tight and requests for pitches and participation closes by 2 November, 2017. KBITS (http://itbt.karnataka.gov.in/Pages/KBITS.aspx) together with ABAI will be hosting this event at the ITC Windsor Manor, Bangalore on the 16 and 17 November 2017.
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Director Sahir Raza
The world we live in today has brought major advances in technology like robotics, holograms and all kinds of new gadgets. Today, we have access to better forms of software and the ability to create smart virtual assistants that can learn and evolve like a human being. The question begs what if, you could have a relationship with a virtual entity. It was answered by entertainment platform Arre by bringing alive the digital world of ‘A.I.SHA My Virtual Girlfriend’.
The web series first aired online on 9 April 2016 and was premiered across Arre’s Android and iOS application, websites and its partner platforms including Facebook, YouTube, SonyLIV, YuppTV, Vodafone Play and Jet Airways flight. The second season was released on 23 March 2017.
The story is about a man (Samir) and a woman(Aisha) who is an artificial intelligence simulated humanoid assistant (A.I.S.H.A.). Samir is a genius app developer and also Aisha’s creator. The story follows back and forth conversations between the two characters. A.I.S.H.A. is played by actress Nimisha Mehta. Sam, the brilliant app designer is played by actor and writer Harman Singha who puts on a marvelous performance during the show.
Animation Xpress spoke to the director Sahir Raza about his direction experience as well the visual effects used for the series.
How did VFX help in visual story telling?
It would be incomplete to show AI without some form of visual effects. Our endeavour was to bring alive the world of Aisha. In all ways possible, her life is different from the grimy reality of the outside world.
Aisha in season one was immature and impetuous as her universe changed and evolved, so did her emotions as well. Season two displays a mature version of Aisha and she has become independent to quite an extent. The VFX that was used in both seasons pertained to her evolution and emotional states as the series progressed.
The coding and hacking helps to establish the digital world of the various characters at play. Some of it exists as a ticking clock, making the moment run faster than real time adding an element of thrill to the scene. Whereas, there is other information shown in spoken form as plain dialogues from characters would have been rather dull.
How was your experience of directing?
Aisha is very close to my heart. I have always wanted to work within the science fiction space. To have the opportunity this early in my directorial career in this exact zone I wanted to work in is a dream come true. It was a delight to work with a team that rose to the challenge and understood every restriction that they were working under but came out successful.
Has VR been used anywhere? Can we see it with the help of VR device? If no then why did you use the concept of VR?
We did not shoot anything for virtual reality. We used VR as a storytelling tool because we wanted to communicate to the audience that Siddharth Babbar and Aisha had made a major breakthrough in making her as technology that was immersive. Darwin’s first product would be a big step in technology that would take the world by storm. This would change not only the idea of an AI, but provide a better consumer experience that was irresistible. Sid’s character fails to bring his dream to the world had he been successful. This would have changed the world forever.
What software was used for the VFX and on average how long did it take to design?
A lot of the VFX was designed using Adobe After Effects. Each scene had varied time differences as some of the complex scenes took up to a week, while others were quick. It took months of pre-planning and changes to perfect it.
What was your experience while working with the VFX studio Running Image for the creation of this web series? Why did you decide to collaborate with them?
We went through a long process of searching for the right fit for the series. We gave a couple of test scenes to several VFX studios. Mark and his team at Running Image returned with some of the most interesting effects. The battle in the first season was to figure out Aisha’s world and to try and construct something from scratch. Mark, Pranil and team came through on this. We had amazing brain storming sessions and fun designing to make everything look good. This developed a working relationship that we carried through the second season.
In the second episode of season one, there is a scene with VFX where A.I.S.H.A. is standing in the middle of files and dragging the files up and down. Could you explain how that scene was created?
We went through a bunch of iterations of what Aisha at work would look like. We felt that the content would be conveyed by seeing her accessing a lot of data that a human wouldn’t be able to. While brainstorming on what would communicate this idea, we decided to use the design of a globe. It held endless possibilities because it would keep expanding and evolve as her grasp of the internet and her digital universe grew.
Tell us about some of the most challenging VFX scenes. How were they created?
In season one the most challenging VFX was the globe, besides this was the basic design of Aisha’s world. In season two the most intense bits were when two Aisha’s were dealing with Sid. One planning what her next step was, while the other Aisha showed up in front of Sid. To do this we shot the scenes in 4 layers.
A plate shot was used with one layer showing only Raghu (Siddarth Babbar), another layer with Nimisha(Aisha) looking at Raghu and finally another one with Nimisha right next to camera looking at old videos. Once the layers were shot, they were all combined in post and a layer of videos from season one was added on top. While in post this may not have been too time taking, but this was a scene that took a lot of planning and precise execution.
Number of VFX shots and how big was your VFX team?
The two seasons have about 300-400 instances of VFX at least. The team primarily consisted of two heads Mark Troy Dsouza and Pranil Mahajan. There was a lot of people behind the scenes at Running Image studio that were involved as well.
(This article has been written by Rohan Rodrigues and edited by Swati Panda)
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e-xpress Interactive has announced midnight launch for one of the most anticipated games this year, Assassin’s Creed Origins. Players who have pre-ordered the game or want to buy the game can collect the copies on 26 October 2017, 11.30 pm onwards.
Games The Shop in Mumbai and Jai Ganesh in Thane will play host to the event.Players who attend the midnight launch will get official Assassin’s Creed Origins merchandise.
Assassin’s Creed Origins is releasing for the PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One on 27 October. The Standard Edition is priced at Rs. 3599 while the Deluxe Edition is priced at Rs.3799. Assassin’s Creed Origins Gods Edition is priced at Rs.7999.
For the last four years, the team behind Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag has been crafting a new beginning for the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
Set in Ancient Egypt, players will journey to the most mysterious place in history, during a crucial period that will shape the world and give rise to the Assassin’s Brotherhood. Plunged into a living, systemic and majestic open world, players are going to discover vibrant ecosystems, made of diverse and exotic landscapes that will provide them with infinite opportunities of pure exploration, adventures and challenges.
Powered by a new fight philosophy, Assassin’s Creed Origins embraces a brand new RPG direction where players level up, loot, and choose abilities to shape and customize their very own skilled Assassin as they grow in power and expertise while exploring the entire country of Ancient Egypt.
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From a deep understanding and concern for the graphic storytelling and animation industry, has emerged the Indian festival Chitrakatha.
It is an international student animation festival held at the NID (National Institute of Design) campus, Ahmedabad, India every alternate year. In the sixth edition of the festival that is hosted this year from 22 to 28 October, the theme is Afro-Asia. The six-day long festival is replete with sessions, seminars, film screenings, debates, and is open to students all round the world.
Sekhar Mukherjee
The festival received 600 entries from across the world including India for its animation and comics competition, out of which 76 have been shortlisted for animation and 12 for comics. The all-women jury panel for the competition is lead by Ebele Okoye, whose film Anna Blume has won the 2007 Robert Bosch Foundation Promotional Prize for Animation as well as the Ritter Prize at the 2010 Zebra Poetry Film Festival Berlin. The other judges include Sara Khalili, Ng’endo Mukii, Heeseon Kim and Tanishka Kachru.
Since the festival is hosted in the city of Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat, festival director Sekhar Mukherjee thought it was apt to have India’s holy animal cow, as a mascot of Chitrakatha. “Apart from that, I also break the word cow into cinema of wonder,” says he.
Chitrakatha was born out of a plan to host an artistic student animation festival from National Institute of Design to celebrate its multidisciplinary nature and the power of design process. The idea came in 2003 and the first edition was held in 2007. Mukherjee, who himself is a post-graduate in animation film design from NID shares, “I thought that this festival would be a great opportunity to encourage students and bring the international community together.”
The objective of the festival has been to build a slow and steady awareness across the nation amongst the students, academia, stakeholders and policymakers about the power of design education, with NID’s 50-year old legacy in the field of design.
A seminar on the second day of Chitrakatha’17
World peace, human rights, non-violence, Nelson Mandela, sunlight, migration, love, bandits, clowns, laughter, identity, gender, gaze, freedom, quality, compassion, pandits, bandits: Chitrakatha’17 promises to animate this chaotic dance of new world order under the theme Afro-Asia.
Elaborating on the theme of the edition, Mukherjee says, “My proposal of this year was to bring these two subcontinents (Africa and Asia) together. And we are also talking about how story travels from origins of a region to now.”
The festival brings together a community of artists, designers, geologists, historians, dancers, musicians, archaeologists who all tell their stories which can be brought alive with the medium of animation. “This does not restrict the minds of the students to mechanical animation and they use the medium as a tool to explore these subjects as well,” he concludes.
(This article has been written by Anshita Bhatt and edited by Swati Panda)
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Orange Radius flagship brand ‘Parshu’
The Indian film industry’s pursuit of birthing its own version of a classic superhero may still prolong, but comic publishing house Orange Radius has been riding a wave of its own ever since Parshu was brought to existence.
The character is inspired by Lord Parshuram, an avatar of Vishnu, who imbues great guts and glory. However, it’s the sacred axe – Parshu – that fired the imagination of Raveesh Mohan, the founder of Orange Radius and the brain behind India’s popular superhero-warrior.
Originally released in September 2013 titled Parshu: Origins, the maiden edition whipped up a storm for its rumoured resemblance to DC comics’ Nightwing. Yet, the speculations weren’t big enough to prevent the series from striking a chord with its readers.
Soon, five more editions followed, each pushing the thrill up by a notch. And now, the makers have their plates full with the next version of the same. Suffice to say, Parshu really is some stuff!
The six editions of ‘Parshu’
For the record, the upcoming comic isn’t just another comic. It’s a motion comic! Yes, Orange Radius is tapping into the segment as the concept continues to gather steam in the country. Mohan was ambitious in his words as he says, “As a studio, we work on several animation projects with several big names of India and are looking to expand beyond our borders. Motion comics are something we’ve worked on for a couple of clients and are looking to expand in this format for our in-house productions.”
Whilst it’s a no-brainer that the comic industry in India has witnessed a precipitous fall from grace over the decades, the sales of the hard copies too have gone south. With players increasingly switching over to digitisation and motion comics, the print equivalents are fast drying up. And so are the financial returns.
Orange Radius founder Raveesh Mohan
Regarding motion comics Mohan says, “We wanted to do something different because print comics wasn’t a financially viable option. We initially had plans of releasing a 200 pager GN but instead decided to work on a motion comic.”
“The motion comic has been in production for a few months and we have been pitching the format across production houses as well” he further adds.Motion comics are said to lift the characters up from the pages and bring them to life. So the fans can expect a whole new experience of their favourite desi comic hero with the release of its latest series. And the story? “The story will be a re-imagining of his origins, will capture the legend of Lord Parshuram and interleave storytelling between current day and Lord Parshuram’s era” Mohan reveals.
Written alongside Priyank Loonker, he also talks about the team who helped put it all together. “Sunil and Sameer are the animators while Ravi from our team is the artist. Tarun Sahu has worked on the project initially.”
The Parshu web series is targeting an audience above 15 years of age and aiming for a February-March 2018 release.
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All scenes were filmed with a RED Dragon and a 100mm macro lens. Title: Wild Valley I Director, Visual Artist: Susi Sie I Shooting Assistant: Remo Gambacciani I Producer: Lars Wagner I Music & Sound Design: Nikolai von Sallwitz I Client: Stoneleigh I Agency: DigitasLBi
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